Bay Area Guzheng is established by Melody Pu Liu (刘璞), an accomplished guzheng performer, instructor and a board certified music therapist. Bay Area Guzheng provides regular and adaptive guzheng lessons, guitar lessons, ukulele lessons and music therapy service to people who love music and want to promote their health. Our mission is to help people have better life with music.
Melody graduated from one of the top conservatories in China, Xi’an Conservatory of Music (西安音乐学院), the only and the highest conservatory in the Northwest, China. Melody began to play guzheng when she was nine years old, and she started her professional music training since she was admitted by the High school attached to Xi’an Conservatory of Music (西安音乐学院附中). During the 7 years professional guzheng study, Melody has learned guzheng from several top guzheng professors from China. Yifeng Fan (樊艺凤/西安音乐学院教授), Wei Wang (王蔚/上海音乐学院教授), and Hua Lei (雷华/西安音乐学院教授). Because of her outstanding talent in guzheng, she ranked 1st during the 7 years studying and had gained many national and provincial awards such as the National Fellowship, First Class of People Republic of China (中国国家奖学金), and the 1st prize at the First Chinese Traditional Musical Instrument Contest in ShaanXi (陕西省首届民族器乐大赛), China. Besides, Melody has taught guzheng for a broad age range of students and has taught at Shenandoah University, VA. She helps students to set individualized goals according to students’ level and needs. Her teaching style is patient, warm and student-centered.
In addition to her accomplishment in guzheng, Melody also plays and teaches piano, guitar and ukulele. Moreover, Melody is a board certified music therapist in the US. She holds a Master’s of Music in Music Therapy from Colorado State University, and earned her Certificate in Music Therapy at Shenandoah University, Virginia. She is a Neurologic Music Therapist and applies NMT strategies with children with autism and others. Bilingual in Chinese (mandarin) and English, she brings Music Therapy to a wide range of cultures in the Bay Area, California. She completed her internship in Virginia at a day program for elders and at the Westminster Canterbury, an Assisted Living Facility. She provides group and individual music therapy sessions for a broad age range of clients including elders with dementia, adults with developmental disabilities and children with special needs.
In addition to her accomplishment in guzheng, Melody also plays and teaches piano, guitar and ukulele. Moreover, Melody is a board certified music therapist in the US. She holds a Master’s of Music in Music Therapy from Colorado State University, and earned her Certificate in Music Therapy at Shenandoah University, Virginia. She is a Neurologic Music Therapist and applies NMT strategies with children with autism and others. Bilingual in Chinese (mandarin) and English, she brings Music Therapy to a wide range of cultures in the Bay Area, California. She completed her internship in Virginia at a day program for elders and at the Westminster Canterbury, an Assisted Living Facility. She provides group and individual music therapy sessions for a broad age range of clients including elders with dementia, adults with developmental disabilities and children with special needs.